THIS WEEKEND The
two faces of Robert De Niro came out at theaters as his new suspense thriller
Hide and Seek scared up enough business
for a number one opening while his comedic side continued to draw audineces
in Meet the Fockers giving the legendary
actor two films in the Top Five. All five Oscar nominees for Best Picture
capitalized on their recent nominations and expanded into wider release
leading to strong sales spikes and higher chart positions this weekend.
Meanwhile, most holdovers experienced small declines as ticket buyers snowed
out last weekend returned in full force to the multiplexes this time to
power the January box office to an exceptionally strong finish.

For the fourth consecutive weekend, a new release surged above industry
expectations in its opening as the Fox fright flick Hide
and Seek bowed in the top spot with $22M from an ultrawide 3,005-theater
release, according to final studio
figures. Averaging a solid $7,308 per location, the R-rated chiller stars
De Niro as a psychologist whose daughter, played by Dakota Fanning, befriends
an imaginary character who causes terror in their new home. The studio's
marketing efforts connected with consumers by focusing on starpower and
suspense. A catchy title didn't hurt either. Reviews were harsh but moviegoers
payed little attention to critics making Hide
and Seek the latest horror film to post surprisingly stellar
grosses following White Noise and The
Grudge.

Budgeted at $30M, Hide and Seek
skewed 57% female and 57% under the age of 25, according to studio exit
polls. After a string of fall and winter flops such as First
Daughter, Flight of the Phoenix,
and Elektra, Fox found itself at number
one for the first time since August's Alien vs.
Predator. After the better-than-expected debuts of White
Noise and Coach Carter,
Hide became the third $20M+ opener
of the month helping to start off the new year on a powerful note.

Last weekend's top film, the Ice Cube family comedy Are
We There Yet?, finished in second place but saw sales slip by
a mere 12%. The incredible hold helped give the Sony release a total of
$38.5M in only ten days of release. With its broad appeal, the PG-rated
film could very well go on to become Cube's top-grossing movie ever beating
the $75.8M of 2002's Barbershop.

After six weeks of limited release, Clint Eastwood's highly acclaimed
boxing drama Million Dollar Baby expanded
into national play on the heels of its seven Oscar nominations and grossed
$12.3M to finish the frame in third place. Widening from 147 to 2,010 theaters,
the Warner Bros. title averaged a solid $6,102 per location and raised
its cume to $21.6M. Of the five Best Picture nominees, Baby
had grossed the least and played in the fewest number of theaters and therefore
had the most to gain in the post-nomination period. Now in full national
release, the PG-13 film aims to remain a box office contender for weeks
to come and Eastwood's DGA Award victory over Martin Scorsese for director
of the year on Saturday will help keep the Oscar race between Million
Dollar Baby and The Aviator
a very dramatic one.

Robert De Niro's other film in the top five, comedy heavyweight Meet
the Fockers, placed fourth with $8M in its sixth weekend sending
the cume to $258.4M. That puts the Universal smash at number 29 on the
list of all-time domestic blockbusters ranking an inch above fellow holiday
juggernaut The Incredibles which has
grossed $258M. In its third game, Paramount's Coach
Carter fell only 24% to $8M giving the Samuel L. Jackson hit
$53.6M in 17 days.

With eleven Academy Award nominations to its credit, Martin Scorsese's
The Aviator flew 56% higher this weekend
taking in $7.6M in its sixth weekend of wide release and watched its total
climb to $68.2M. Miramax added 242 extra playdates and averaged an even
$3,016 from 2,503 venues. The Leonardo DiCaprio epic now seems on course
to fly to the $100M domestic mark if it can keep public interest high during
Oscar season. The talking animal pic Racing Stripes
eased just 4% to $6.5M giving Warner Bros. $35.1M to date.

Competing Best Picture contender Sideways
finally hit the top ten in its 15th week of release grossing $6.3M finishing
in eighth place. Fox Searchlight added 998 theaters boosting the run to
1,694 sites and averaged $3,747. Earning five Oscar nominations, the Paul
Giamatti starrer reached its widest point of distribution yet and more
than doubled the biggest weekend gross of its run. With its cume now at
$40.1M, Sideways will easily become
the highest-grossing film in company history for Searchlight by next weekend
surpassing the $45.9M of 1997's The Full Monty.

Universal's comedy In Good Company
slipped 22% to $6.2M pushing the cume to $36M. Rounding out the top ten
was the Focus action title Assault on Precinct
13 which dropped a reasonable 34%, but still suffered the worst
decline in the top ten. The Ethan Hawke-Laurence Fishburne starrer grossed
$4.3M bringing the 12-day sum to $14.8M.

Debuting poorly outside the top ten was the sci-fi thriller Alone
in the Dark which played in empty theaters to a weekend gross
of just $2.8M. Lions Gate averaged a pitiful $1,334 from 2,124 locations
for the R-rated Christian Slater-Tara Reid venture. Moviegoers looking
for a new scary movie chose Hide and Seek
over Alone by a whopping eight to one
margin.

Three films dropped out of the top ten this weekend. The
Phantom of the Opera, which earned three Oscar nominations in
less prominent categories, grossed $4M, off only 12%, and lifted its cume
to $38.9M. The Warner Bros. musical may go on to reach about $50M. Universal's
Michael Keaton thriller White Noise
fell 44% to $2.8M and brought its sum to $53.7M. The PG-13 fright flick
should find its way to $55-60M. Crumbling again in its third adventure
was the Fox flop Elektra which declined
64% to $1.4M. The Jennifer Garner actioner has collected a measly $23M
and should finish its run with under $25M.

Healthy gains were enjoyed by other Academy Award nominated films this
weekend. Miramax's Finding Neverland,
which captured seven nods including Picture and Actor, more than doubled
its gross with $2.8M from 1,258 theaters. The distributor added 389 additional
runs, averaged $2,190, and pushed its total to $35.9M. The MGM/UA genocide
drama Hotel Rwanda added 98 theaters
for a total of 417 and grossed $1.8M for a 39% boost. Averaging $4,427
per site, the Don Cheadle pic which was honored with nominations for Actor
and Supporting Actress has taken in $8.2M to date and will expand further
on Friday. Universal more than doubled the theater count for the Jamie
Foxx film Ray and collected $615,415
pushing the cume to $73.8M. The highest-grossing Best Picture nominee has
already reached most of its theatrical audience since its national launch
in October and is likely to see most of its Oscar boost help its DVD which
will be released this Tuesday.

The top ten films grossed $97.6M which was up a solid 46% from last
year when You Got Served debuted at
number one with $16.1M; and up 15% from 2002 when The
Recruit opened in the top spot with $16.3M.

Compared to projections, Hide and Seek
opened stronger than my $16M forecast while Alone
in the Dark bowed to less than half of my $8M prediction. Million
Dollar Baby performed a bit below my $14M projection while The
Aviator was on target with my $7.5M forecast.

Take this week's NEW Reader
Survey on the Oscar battle between The Aviator
and Million Dollar Baby. In last week's
survey, readers were asked which of three upcoming horror films would become
the biggest hit. Of 1,518 responses, 62% picked Hide
and Seek, 28% selected Boogeyman,
and 10% chose Alone in the Dark.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Data source: Exhibitor
Relations, EDI. Opinions expressed
in this column are those solely of the author.